A Peek into my Life

For rakshabandhan last week, I decided to do a special maharashtrian thali for lunch. Rakshabandhan also coincides with Narali Poornima in Marathi culture. On that day, narali bhaat (coconut rice) is traditionally made. I also planned masale bhaat, puri bhaaji, and the famous khamang kakdi. My mother in law brought over sevai kheer which went really well with the puri bhaaji. I also bought some taak (buttermilk) to go with the masale bhaat. We really love Govardhan brand taak. Even their masala taak is not spicy but spiced in a very balanced manner. Here is the taat (thali) in its full glory. :) maharashtrian thali Sakhar bhaat There are many variations of this rice. My mother used to make sakhar bhaat (translates to sugar rice) with coconut added to it. It is one of the more complex recipes for this rice but is also undoubtedly more delicious. Sakhar bhaat Adapted from Sakharbhat Recipe By Tanuja Serves 12 Ingredients: 2 cups basmati rice 1.5 cups sug...

Summer is about to start here but I am still not ready to say good-bye to my favourite season of the year - winter. For me, the best part of winter is the abundance of beautiful vegetables. Sweet, red winter carrots are one such gem of a vegetable. We have been eating it raw every day for the whole season. I also made our favourite winter dessert - gajar ka halwa on a few occasions. I tried a few tricks and have streamlined the long process of making the halwa into a less time-consuming and less labor-intensive one. Gajar ka Halwa gajar ka halwa Ingredients: 1 kg carrots 1 ltr milk* 1 tbsp cashew pieces 1 tsp cardamom powder 1/2 cup sugar Method Heat the milk in a large vessel till it comes to a boil. Let it reduce on low flame stirring once in a while. Meanwhile, grate the carrots to a medium thickness. I outsource this to my husband who does it in 10 minutes. Add the grated carrots and a cup of the milk which was reducing to a pressure cooker and cook for 3 whis...

June sees the most birthdays in our family. The first week brings my husband's birthday; the second week brings my brother-in-law's birthday and the third week brings my mother's birthday. Unfortunately, I cannot bake a cake for my mother since we do not live close by, but I always bake a cake for my husband. This year I also baked a cake for my cousin brother-in-law when I got the chance. I made a honey cake for my husband's birthday based on a recipe I had bookmarked long ago. Everyone absolutely loved it, especially my daughter. She requested that I repeat the same cake the following week. That is a rare occurrence because I have so many bookmarked recipes and repeating a recipe so close to the previous attempt is not what I like to do. But the cake certainly has that comforting taste and texture that leaves you wanting more. And more we had, the following week. husband's birthday cake b-i-l's birthday cake My daughter doctored up leftover cake ...

I have been wanting to recreate Turtle empanadas ever since I tasted them at a popular Mexican eatery called "On the Border", back in Charlotte. That was over 3 years ago. They had, apparently, discontinued the dessert when we went there again. That made us pretty sad. It was just last month, for our 10th wedding anniversary, that I finally made up my mind to try it out. It was pretty close tastewise, as far as our memory serves. Mine were just somewhat smaller than the ones at On the Border. Empanadas plated up to look pretty! I made all the components before hand, then assembled and baked the empanadas the day of our anniversary. Instead of regular caramel, I made dulche de leche one day. I really wanted to try making it for its unique preparation method. I made chocolate sauce the next day and the dough on the third day. Finally every thing came together to make a beautiful dessert. Dulche de leche recipe source : CakesAndMore.in Dulche de leche in a...

I am currently in pantry cleaning mode. So, I have tried out a lot of recipes this past two weeks. I had bookmarked some of them for maybe a year now and I finally tried them out. Gingerbread Cookies The daughter saw an episode of Care Bears making gingerbread cookies and since that day, she had been insisting I make them. She even told me the recipe : ground cloves, cinnamon, ginger, molasses and flour. Thats a good enough recipe for a 3 year old. I followed the King Arthur flour recipe This recipe makes real tasty cookies! A great balance of spice and sweet and a good crisp to soft ratio. The dough needs to be kept cold at all times otherwise it will turn into a sticky mess real fast. I made the dough the previous night and stuck it in the fridge in a covered container and pulled it out of the fridge about half an hour before rolling to make it manageable to roll. The dough still has to be cold to touch. I rolled it out on parchment paper with a piece of plastic wrap on top....

Recently our snack stock ran out. I decided to restock it with some healthy snacks. One for the sweet tooth and the other for the savory. No Sugar Date ladoo with chia seeds Dates provide all the sweetness for this ladoo. They are sweet and full of fiber and nutrition. The nuts and seeds provide crunch and substance while providing good fats. Ingredients: 1 cup dates 1 1/2 cup mixed nuts and seeds * 4 cardamom pods Method Soak nuts like almonds and walnuts in water for about 2 hours. This makes them easier to digest. Peel and chop. This is a time consuming process. This step can be done a day ahead. Using a nut chopper or food processor will make it a whole lot easier. Boil some water. Barely cover the dates with the boiling water in a container. Cover and leave aside for 15 minutes. This softens the dates. This step is optional if you have a food processor. Since I used the blender, I took this extra step. Blend a little bit of dates at a time in th...

Last weekend was the husband's birthday. It had been a very long time since I made a nice decorated cake. This was the perfect occasion for a nice cake. Just a couple of weeks ago, I saw a video for Strawberry Charlotte on the Joy of Baking youtube channel . I liked the look and I loved the strawberry cream topping. I am totally in a strawberry phase. We have gone through 8 lbs of strawberries in the last month (Some of them are in the freezer, but I am sure they won't last long). I followed the recipe for the Strawberry Charlotte almost exactly. The sponge cake was made exactly the way it was shown in the video. The folding techniques are quite useful. Since the air whipped into the eggs and sugar is what makes the cake fluffy and you do not want to deflate the batter when folding in the dry ingredients. I halved the strawberry cream as I wanted it to be more like cake with frosting rather than being tart like with a lot of strawberry cream filling. The ratio of cake ...

Last week, I invited some friends over for a casual dinner. It was a chaat inspired menu. We started with a chana chaat and a drink I just doctored up with apple and lemon juice and some ginger ale and spices. We then moved on to paav bhaji. We ended the evening with custard topped with bananas, walnuts, and chocolate. Tangy Apple Lemonade (without sugar) I was planning to make an Indian style lemonade (nimbu sherbat). But then I thought I should try to make a drink without adding any sugar. I had an unopened jug of apple juice sitting around and frankly, we were never going to drink it straight. I thought of using the apple juice as a sweetner. It worked out great. The drink was very tangy. The salt and the spices made it taste a bit like jal jeera. It was a perfect match for the chaat menu. We mixed our drinks with ginger ale to add the fizz and sweetness. Method Mix 2 cups of apple juice with 1/2 cup of lemon juice. Add 1/4 tsp each of salt, kala namak (pink ...

Gudi Padva was on Monday. Last year I did not get around to making Shrikhand so this year I was determined to make it. Although this year I did not make puris. After an unusual busy weekend of socialising and food, our tummies were in no position to eat anything fried. So, I stuck to rotis. Shrikhand is one of my favorite dessert and I was very glad that my homemade version tasted just like the real thing (Amul Shrikhand is the gold standard, atleast for me, being from the land of Amul). I had not realized before I tried my hand at it that Shrikhand would be so easy to make. It also has to do with the fact that I made a small quantity. Larger quantities will take a bit more effort. I used my favorite and most traditional flavoring for the Shrikhand : kesar (saffron) and elaichi (cardamom) Kesar Elaichi Shrikhand Serves 4 Ingredients: 1 1/2 cup plain yogurt 1/2 cup sugar 1 tsp coarsely powdered pistachios and almonds a pinch crushed saffron threads 3 cardamo...

Last Sunday was Holi. It is the festival to welcome spring. It also has a religious significance in the story of Prahlad and Holika. While many people love it for the play with colors, for me, it has to obviously link to food. The food synonymus with Holi is Puran Poli. I did not do the poli part, and just went with Puran. The puran poli making process is a little difficult and time consuming. And it is so delicious that it is easy to overdo it. I just made a little bit of puran to offer as prasad. The puran made for eating on its own is a little different than the puran used to stuff the polis. The chana dal is kept whole instead of pureeing it and it needs much less sweetner than the puran for polis. And the biggest advantage, it is quick and hardly requires effort. I am all for the foods that deliver great taste while being easy to make. If you are like me and want a taste of puran poli without all the effort and time, this puran, which is more like a halwa, is just the thing. ...

In my last post , I wrote that I made chocolate covered pretzel hearts as Valentines for my daughter's classmates last year. I thought today is the perfect day to write about them. They are a nice treat to snack on Valentines Day. They are quite easy to make, infact it is not so much about making them as it is assembling them. I used a bag of small pretzels also called "tiny twists". They kind of look like tiny hearts. I made my assembly line of pretzels, melted almond bark (white chocolate substitute) and red sugar sprinkles. Going down my assembly line, I take a pretzel and dip it in the white candy coating. I use a fork to lift it out and let the excess drip back into the bowl. While the pretzel is still on the fork, I dip one side in the red sugar. Finally I lay the pretzel (sugar side up) on a foil lined sheet (for easy clean up). When the almond bark starts to thicken, zap it in the microwave for half a minute or so till it gets nice and flowy agai...